UP OR DOWN?
Are we, indeed,, as a nation, in a period of cultural decline as many loud persons, so proclaiming , tell us we are. I am generally suspicious of any person who has a cure ready for everything that might face us socially or physically.
Could it be, rather than a declining situation,, that our case has been improperly diagnosed?
As a nation we are rather young. We think we have lived a rather full existence in our short span. My own state, the Commonwealth Virginia. Is getting ready to observe her 400th birthday in 2007. It will call for us to take a close look at what we have accomplished in that time/ It will also be a time in which we mus evaluate the enduring worth of our action in the past.
Youth, generally, lets confidence show itself. We have been accused from time-to-time of being a bit on the cocky side when meeting with European or other nations. The opinion has, at times, been justified depending on the nature of the individuals who have represented us in those specific times.
The upcoming years of such birthday celebrations marking four hundred years of existence, may be a good time for us to access our past accomplishments and to determine wherein we may have been amiss in dealing with with some of the problems which faced us
It may well be that we, at times, have confused quantity those quality. In our past we have taken risks. That element, too, is typical at times of most nations as they grow and mature. How did those experiences affect our national history? Are they part of the reason for the alleged attitude of superiority? Can we justify actions we have taken in the past which may no fit well with he best thinking of today?
In truth, there will, I think, be little reason to think we can change things we did wrong as any point of crisis in our years of becoming what we are today. We can , however, learn to live with them in constructive, healing ways. Any nation claiming to be pure is in abject error so, on our 400th Birthday be prepared to witness the presence of warts, wens and withered areas on the birthday cake,. Some of the candles simply will not burn and add light. Some of he sweetness will be bitter and some of the color will be faded and waning.
It could, perhaps, be that we have forgotten much of the stress and growing pains because of the exceptional blessings which have come our way. This 400th birthday celebration will be a good time for taking inventory of our accomplishments and of our failures and those times when we have been, perhaps, amiss in our duties toward others.
A.LM. February 17, 2004 [c476wds]
